Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Portobello Heaven

One of the gifts Gennifer got me for Christmas was this cookbook.
It is not affiliated with Trader Joe's, but was created by two women who shop at Trader Joe's and have created these wonderful dishes using their products. They collaborated to make this book.  It is a beautiful book, with full color photos, and chock full of simple dishes to prepare, using simple ingredients.  Last night I made the baked portobellos. 
Place your portobellos, gills side up (not the way you see them on the cookie sheet here), sprinkle with salt, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes.  After 8 minutes, slide cookie sheet out, place a piece of Havarti cheese on top of each mushroom, and sprinkle with sun dried tomatoes.  Return to oven for two more minutes.  Meanwhile, pour off 1 to 2 T of oil from jar of tomatoes.  Chop 1 to 2 T of fresh basil and mix with reserved oil.  This will be poured over tops of mushrooms when done.  When mushroom comes out of oven, top with micro greens, and drizzle with reserved oil and fresh basil over top.   Place mushroom over bed of baby greens.
During last two minutes of baking mushroom, I popped a couple slices of good sourdough in toaster oven, and basted our eggs to top toast with.  Top toast with egg, and served this with half of a fresh avocado.
I cannot even tell you GOOD this was!  I mean, it was GOOD!!!  Not kind of good, a little good, or okay.  It was HEAVEN!!!!    I used the farm fresh eggs that my neighbor gave me, and there is nothing like the taste of a fresh egg either.  Since I am on Weight Watchers, I counted out my entire meal at 9 points.  2 for the egg, 2 for the toast, 1 for the butter, and 1 for the sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, and 1 for the avocado and 2 for the cheese.  The lettuce and micro greens are free, the mushroom is free.  That is high, but I had 9 pts left for the day, and decided to use them.  You could just have the mushroom, and it would only be 3 pts!!   It was filling, and delicious!   I will be making this again, and soon.  It would go nicely with a piece of grilled salmon, and would be a nice thing to serve for a ladies luncheon.  It is quick and easy to prepare.  Go buy the book, you won't be disappointed.  Gennifer has made several things from her book, and has said that each thing was delicious!  Buy the book!!! 
In other news...yesterday was a bit of a rough go for a certain brown haired, brown eyed, dimpled dumplin' I know.  He woke up extra early, and had a little melt down after school.  Gamma said he couldn't go outside to the front yard. I know...AWFUL.   This is where he melted, and finally fell asleep.
As soon as he fell asleep, I moved him to the sofa, where he slept for 2 hours! 
I am on day 4 of Weight Watchers.  It is going well.  I am making healthier choices, and trying to keep full.  Yesterday for about an hour though, I wanted to EAT!  I had some boring munchies, and then went ahead and made my dinner before Mr. G got home.  I couldn't wait another minute.  He wasn't home til 7.
Yesterday I fixed a tasty sandwich.  Shaved turkey on 10 grain toasted bread.  A slice of cheese, a dollop of guacamole, topped with a handful of baby spinach.  I toasted the turkey and cheese, then added the guacamole and spinach.  Served with orange slices.  Delicious!
On Saturday I found this cute little children's table and chairs.  The table is the perfect size.  The chairs are really old, preschool chairs.  They are metal with a wooden seat, and wooden slats in the back.  It had a bad dig in the wood on the table top, and was painted all white.  I repaired the hole in the top, and repainted it all in heirloom white.  I am thinking of painting the wood seat and slats on the chairs in barn red, and the table top in barn red.
Mama's afghan is coming along.  I added a new color.  A pretty turquoise that I will just put in here and there.  I love what this new color has added.  I am actually quite a bit further along on it now.  I took this photo the other day. 
My son, Drew has moved back home for a bit.  Drew is a musician.  He comes with 2 acoustic guitars, an electric guitar, harmonica, bongos, keyboards, amplifiers, mic stand, and his newest acquisition.....a complete set of drums!!!   His instruments have been relegated to the garage!!!   On Sunday he had a little jam session with a friend of his.
Christopher came over to jam with them for a little while too.
That's it for today.  It looks like another beautiful day here in the IE.  I am going to the yarn shop after taking Noah to school.  Two of my favorite hours of the week!!  Go make it a great day!

22 comments:

Maryrose said...

Great post...keep up the ww. Your dinner looked delicious.

Pam said...

I am loving the mushroom meal with the basted egg on toast - it looks SO GOOD! So does your sandwich.

What a sweet photo of the after effects of a melt down... he looks pretty peaceful.

Holly said...

You, my dear one, put me to shame! You have so much going on while I post about toilet paper. We have 3 portabellos in the fridge right now so I'm making that for dinner. I made sun dried tomatoes in the oven a couple of days ago, no olive oil. This is perfect for tonight. My daughter is back home with me too until probably September. They never truly move away, do they?

Unknown said...

If this is WW, where do I sign up. What a heavenly looking dinner. Nothing better then a little poached egg a top T.J. Sourdough for dinner.

Love you new blanket in the works. Great rich colors.

ROCK ON,
G.B.

Bethany said...

Someone's been busy!! That table and chairs is too adorable!
I am going to tell my mom to read your blog for recipe ideas--you make some good-looking stuff, and she and I are trying to do some semblance of WW together--and she would LOVE that portabello recipe.

Anonymous said...

My mouth was watering badly at your dinner & MORE so at your lunch yesteray! Yum! Must copy soon!

I'm so proud of you Mom keep up the great work with ww's!!

I'm soooo glad they changed the point systems for the healthier side of things, looks like avo went down in points? As it should it's a GOOD for you fat.

Have you tried the chicken sausage links from T.Joes? One is one point, they're really good I had two this morning in an egg white veggie scramble topped with salsa :)

Heather - The Good Life said...

Your mushrooms sound really good. I've heard some really good things about the new WW program on yours and a couple other blogs. I have the old program, but maybe should try the new...enjoy your yarn shopping! :-)

Charlee said...

Loving the afghan colors! There is a blog called ginas skinny recipes she counts all the weight watchers points for you! Her recipes are super yummy and I am not a weight watchers girl you should check her out! http://www.skinnytaste.com

Pammy Sue said...

Your food always looks so great. Now I'm hungry. Good for you on the WW and doing well! I still haven't started, but I didn't have any sugar yesterday either...oh, wait. Yes I did. Somebody has to get rid of that Tiramisu cake. Mr. Garbage Disposal will get fed well today.

~Niki~ said...

I have been dieting now for going on 3 wks. It is so much easier now than it was week 1. I've done WW 5 times in the past.
I lost my biggest amount in 1999~when I dropped 45 - 50 pounds, on my own. It was harder than sin, and I was hungry ALL the time. For some reason this time I'm just not hungry. I'm not sure why. I'm making better choices and have the right foods in the house. That makes it easier for me. Also hubby is dieting with me, so that makes it even easier. he is doing great on his diet too~lost 10 pounds! I think I'm down 7 now. keep it up! let's motivate each other! your meals look yummy.

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy that you are posting your weight watchers recipes now! This morning I got on the scale and lost four pounds! It is so exciting that I'm totally on board now. Gotta love the avocados right now! Tim and I had vege, egg white omelets last night with sliced avocado on top! Yummy!

Keep posting these recipes! They look so delicious and it's fun to try different things!

- said...

Everything looks great as usual Kris and I see you are as busy as ever. Good luck with the WW. I'm going to do it with the old Treadmill and walking. It works best for me.

Cozart Family said...

Hi Kris,
Those Mushrooms look amazing! I sure am going to try those. Thanks for all the great recipes you post. Glad the weight watchers in going good for you. I started the 17 day diet on 2/4/11 and have lost 15 lbs!! This is so exciting. I have a LONG way to go, but I actually can see it. =) Keep up the good work.
Have a great day, Traci

Maryrose said...

Hi...I left you a present on my blog....check it out.
PS Great colors in the afghan by the way.

Genn said...

Oh my gosh, my mouth is watering at your mushrooms and your lunch too! They look so delicous. Way to go with the healthy food planning. It is a lot more planning but I love it.

I can't believe Noah fell asleep on the floor like that!

Gammy said...

Oh Kris, did my comment get dropped, probably something I did...anyway so glad to have time with you yesterday at the Knitt shop, and Diana too. There's something about sitting and Knitting with friends, who have food ideas in common, recipes, and just life in general. Our JuneBug tends to talk while others are talking, because she doesn't realize.....sorry about that. Anxious to get that Trader Joes Cookbook...thanks for the tip!

Lisa said...

Love seeing and hearing about your meal preparations. I'm trying to eat more healthily (and lose weight) so thanks for sharing!

Linda said...

All the food looks really good...now you're making me hungry! Noah is so cute...funny how weel ones just fall asleep anywhere...I used to find my boys asleep in the strangest places...I love your little table and chairs and red on the chairs would be wonderful!

annielizabeth said...

Yup, now I'm hungry! Glad you are doing WW to keep yourself healthy. The cookbook looks interesting.

That's what I've noticed about boys is they really just conk out needing deep sleep rest. Could've been fighting off a new virus, too.

Pretty blanket, love the colors and the new color looks great. Painting the table and chairs with some red would look really nice.

My daughter is turning 30 in April. I keep wondering how that happened? I don't feel old enough. Kris, we must have lived parallel lives at one point! My son is still at home with us and he loves to cook so I get well fed. I guess that is a good exchange. When he moves out someday, I'll miss him :( We're supposed to have a really nice weekend, so enjoy!

NanaNor's said...

Hi Kris, I love Portobellos so will have to print this out and make it.
BTW, I showed my hubby your fridge vs our fridge and then went grocery shopping-haha but seriously our frige looks so much better. Hubby did want to know how you could possibly use that many eggs. 8-)
Have a wonderful weekend; great job on WW, your scale is dropping and mine has gone up a couple of lbs-such a bummer cause I'm snacking too much.

Sara said...

So much yummyness! I want to come to your house for dinner. :)

Kendra @ Domestic Princess in Training said...

You always have so much to comment on in your post! I like it!

I wish we had a Trader Joes in TX. Seems like people in blog world always find the best stuff there. We have something kind of like a Trader Joes but I’m not sure if it’s as good!

Both of your meals look heavenly! I’m all about eggs and avocados. 9 points of the 1st one is great! That’s a decent sized meal for 9 points. I’ve done weight watchers in the past and loved it! It really is a great program you just have to stick with it, get involved and make friends in the meetings, and don’t let yourself miss a meeting. I’m still a member but had some health problems a couple months ago and could only eat veggies anyway so I stopped going. I lost 17 lbs but that was because I couldn’t eat anything. I kept my membership active and want to go back after the wedding. I’m pretty much eating rabbit food right now to make sure I lose as much as I can in the next month. ;o) Oh the things you do to look good on your wedding day!
You asked if I’m getting excited....I am! I ready to be able to call Kent my husband. I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.

Oh and I LOVE the little white table! I’ve been hunting for one for a photo shoot I have coming up in May. I don’t really want to buy one since I don’t have kiddos yet but I’ve been looking for someone who will let me borrow theirs. Too bad you don’t live closer! I might invite you over for tea and sweet talk you into letting me borrow yours! ;o)

Kendra aka "Domestic Princess in Training"